Dr Awesome Plus+ iPhone review

Dr Awesome Plus+ is another title I discovered while scouring the virtual globe for the best free iPhone games. How awesome is Dr Awesome Plus+? Fairly awesome, I’d say.

Ngmoco has a reputation for being a wee bit cheeky with its freemium models, and Dr Awesome Plus+ doesn’t disappoint. If you want to play the free version, you must sign up for a Plus+ account. There’s no two ways about it.

To be fair, signing up takes less than two minutes, and there’s no obligation to make use of any of the Plus+ features whatsoever.

On the other hand, if the thought of being forced into signing up for a Plus+ account makes you sick to the gills, you can grab the paid version for 59p.

Anyway, cheekiness aside, Dr Awesome Plus+ is actually a lot of fun. There’s a viral outbreak and you’re tasked with operating on the patients, using the accelerometer to slice up, er, bits of patient. That element isn’t entirely clear.

To make things more interesting, Dr Awesome Plus+ uses names from your iPhone’s Contacts for the patients. Dr Osbourne warns: “don’t let your personal connection get in the way of your objectivity. Remember your training!”

The presentation is great. The surgical procedures are interspersed with comic book-style scenes with occasionally amusing banter. The phrase “comic narrative” will inevitably strike fear into the hearts of cynics, but even I found myself chuckling a few times.

The surgeries themselves look great too. They take place on vibrant purple, red, blue and green screens, which mightn’t make much sense biologically, but hell – it’s all part of the fun.

The controls are entirely accelerometer based; you simply tilt your iPhone to cut through infected tissue. The little viruses move around, and if one of them collides with your incision before it’s complete, you lose vital seconds; if the clock runs out, you lose a life; lose all your lives, and the patient dies.

The ultimate aim is to isolate the viruses in areas of cell that aren’t big enough to contain them, at which point the threat is neutralised. To mix things up a bit, there are 16 different viruses to contend with, all with their own unique behaviours.

With the Plus+ account, you can add friends, access leaderboards and earn Plus+ Points. There are 20 Awards in total up for grabs, including No Death Victory, Single Cut Victory and Level Won In Under 5s.

Pros

Occasionally amusing

20 Awards to go for

Looks great

Cons

Mandatory Plus+ account

The surgery is a bit samey

Summary: If you’re willing to sign up for a Plus+ account – or if you already have one – I highly recommend Dr Awesome Plus+. If you’d rather pay the 59p, heck – I’d probably still recommend it.